As a kid, my
father made sure that we carried a little scribble-book along, on every
vacation. At the end of each day, both of us would sit down and make a list of
interesting things we came across on that day’s outing. He took care that the
little notebook did not just become a mundane listing of historical monuments,
museum specimens or the geographical formations. Instead he used to bring to my
notice the titbits of the locales. A certain kind of tree that just grew in
that particular place or the colourful pebble-stones that lined the cobblestoned
path or at times just a uniquely clad person in the traditional attire of that
place; we used to spot these sights on our ramblings. At times it only turned
out to be a game on who spots more. We also had this ritual on listing down the
term used for greeting a person in the local language of the place we visited.
So every outing we went on has a Sat sri
akal (Punjabi), Vanakkam, (Tamil)
or kem cho (Gujarati) listed, which
was used by the both of us to randomly greet people on the streets. At times, it even helped us strike random
conversations on the streets with the local people and then there were also
times when we used to get snotty looks from people as if the father-daughter
duo had gone berserk. He used to pick up information on the indigenous
ingredients and the local food delights midst these conversations and this was
followed by a hogging spree across the streets of the place. Though we were
also victimised by the health and hygiene lectures by Mom on certain instances
of our upset stomachs courtesy the spice rating of the region, yet nothing
deterred us from conducting our food trials. In fact the self-confessed
epicurean that I am today, is courtesy my father. Back from the vacation, we
used to punch in photographs with the scribbled notes and my father kept them
in his closet. Looking back at those times, today, I realise that he made me
look beyond the touristy make-up of the place and imbibe the place in me.
Last year,
we shifted to a new place and while moving things, my mother found a bundle of
these antique notebooks. She was about to throw them away when my father
stepped in saying he wanted to keep them with him since they were a memorabilia
of his magic times with his daughter.
When my mother mentioned this to me, I was taken aback, since I was of the
opinion that it was only for my enjoyment that my father made these efforts. I
only realised the truth of it when I went on a trip with my niece, last
Christmas to Kerala and we had a gala time.The curiosity in her innocent eyes and her gaping expressions at the sight of anything magnificent were simply adorable. Kids sure add magic to your
vacation. The kids traveller tales on Club Mahindra’s Teddy Travelogues http://membership.clubmahindra.com/TeddyTravelogues/index.html,
only affirmed my feeling.
